Red Wings' Andreas Athanasiou: Sent to bench in Tuesday's win

by
RotoWire Staff

Feb 14, 2018
• 1 min read
UpdateFeb 14, 2018, 4:10pm

Athanasiou was benched Tuesday night against the Ducks, the Detroit Free Press reports. He picked up one shift in the third period before siting out the rest of the contest, which culminated in a 2-1 home win for the Red Wings.

The enigmatic forward only logged 9:38 of ice time, marking only the second time all season he'd seen fewer than 10 minutes. "There's nights he's going for sure and everybody can see it," coach Jeff Blashill said. "When him and I talked as he was coming back (from a contract holdout) we talked about making sure when he's going, we'll make sure he gets the ice time. Tonight just wasn't his night. He'll get another chance against Tampa (on Thursday) to have a big impact." Detroit's bench boss is not afraid to send these types of messages to his younger players when they need to pick up the slack. If you're an Athanasiou owner, you've got to hope this lights a fire under him, as he emerged from his contract holdout with lofty expectations, but only has 24 points (10 goals, 14 assists) through 45 games.